Smart Power Grid

March 2019
When Grounds are Separated

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How should you proceed with a switching regulator with an analog ground (AGND) and a power ground (PGND)? This is a question asked by many developers designing a switching power supply. Some developers are accustomed to dealing with a digital GND and an analog GND; however, their experience frequently fails th
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Date:
03/31/2019
Are you SiC of Silicon? - Part 1

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Anup Bhalla, Ph.D., Vice President Engineering, UnitedSiC

SiC applications began in the 2000s with the adoption of SiC JBS diodes into PFC applications. This was followed by the use of SiC diodes and FETs in the PV industry. But the recent surge in applications relating to EV On-board chargers and DC-DC converters is driving SiC growth. The nascent adoption in the EV
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Date:
03/31/2019
PSDcast - The Future of Energy Storage
In this episode of the PSDcast, we're chatting with one of the leading voices on lead battery innovation about the future of energy storage. Energy storage has become vitally important in recent years, and for more than 25 years, the Consortium for Battery Innovation has helped develop advanced lead battery tec
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Date:
03/26/2019
UnitedSiC announces strategic investment by Analog Devices

Chris Dries, President and CEO at UnitedSiC

March 18, 2019, Princeton, New Jersey and Norwood, Massachusetts: UnitedSiC, a manufacturer of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, today announced a strategic investment and long-term supply agreement from Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI).  Terms of the investment and supply agreement were not announced.
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Date:
03/18/2019
AC/DC Linear Regulator Features 75 Percent Higher Efficiency
DALLAS – Texas Instruments (TI) expanded its broad portfolio of over 500 linear regulators by introducing a first-of-its-kind smart AC/DC linear regulator. With 75 percent higher efficiency and two times the power density of other linear regulators, this device achieves the best balance between high efficiency and
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Date:
03/18/2019
Wide Bandgap Semiconductors and Packaging - it’s happening

Kevin Parmenter, Field Applications Manger, Taiwan Semiconductor

The promise of wide bandgap semiconductors (WBG) are higher switching frequency and higher operating temperatures perhaps smaller sizes, greater efficiencies and perhaps higher reliability, less size, less cooling – no fans for example, smaller heatsinks, smaller capacitors, less weight and overall better pe
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Date:
03/08/2019
Two Steps to High Voltages

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Figure 1. Boost topology for generating a high voltage from a low voltage

If a high voltage needs to be generated from a low voltage, a boost converter can be used. This represents one of the three elementary switching regulator topologies and requires only two switches, an inductor, and input and output capacitors. Besides the boost converter, the other basic topologies are the buck co
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Date:
03/08/2019
Beat Obsolescence with PULS DIN-Rail Power Supplies
PULS Power has undertaken not to discontinue standard products while enough demand is present to make them viable for manufacture. This provides their customers with the reassurance that they will not be forced into costly changes to their system components and performance in regular short intervals and to have
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Date:
03/06/2019
Han ES Press HMC connector range allows fast installation
The new Han ES Press HMC (High Mating Cycles) connector series from HARTING combines the facility to be installed quickly without tools with extremely robust construction that allows the devices to handle at least 10,000 mating cycles. The quick connect technology used in the Han ES Press HMC involves the con
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Date:
03/06/2019
Industry’s smallest logic parts approved for automotive
Nexperia announced that over twenty logic types in the company’s space-saving leadless MicroPak packages are now AEC-Q100 qualified. These logic solutions are the smallest devices of their type suitable for automotive applications and Nexperia’s Q100 portfolio exceeds the Automotive Electronics Council’
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Date:
03/06/2019
Industry’s first automotive USB 3.1 SmartHub supports Type-C
Microchip announces an automotive-qualified USB 3.1 Gen1 SmartHub IC, offering up to 10 times faster data rates over existing USB 2.0 solutions and reducing indexing times to improve the user experience in vehicles. To support the rising adoption of USB Type-C in the smartphone market and enable universal conne
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Date:
03/06/2019
Ultra-Low Power Technology applied to Energy Harvesting
e-peas has announced the introduction of a new power management IC specifically optimized for energy harvesting from thermal sources in wireless sensors application. Supplied in a space-saving 28-pin QFN package, the AEM20940 is a highly advanced device based on proprietary technology that is capable of extractin
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Date:
03/06/2019
New SCALE-iDriver SiC-MOSFET Gate Driver
Power Integrations announced the SIC1182K SCALE-iDriver, a high-efficiency, single-channel SiC MOSFET gate driver that delivers the highest peak output gate current available without an external boost stage. Devices can be configured to support different gate-drive voltage requirements matching the range of requi
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Date:
03/06/2019
50-Watt, High Current Density, Non-isolated Digital DC-DC Modules
Artesyn Embedded Technologies today announced the LGA50D dc-dc module, which offers one of the highest current density ratings in the industry. With a footprint of just 1 x 0.5 inches or 25.4 x 12.5mm, this innovative non-isolated unit offers two independent and configurable 25 amp, 50 watt outputs, which can
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Date:
03/06/2019
 Reenvision Inductor Operation to Optimize New Applications

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Figure 1: Core material performance curves

What do new applications need in order to take advantage of new devices like wide band-gap semiconductors? They need the best inductors. And what is the best inductor for your application?   Answering that requires proper characterization of the inductors, which is more than can be conveniently obtained fr
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Date:
03/01/2019
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